T-CENTRALEN STATION (STOCKHOLM)

Colors converge at Stockholm station

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Yasuhiro Takami

By Kazuhiro Katayama

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Stockholm's subway system, an important means of transportation for the locals, has the daunting task of linking 14 islands separated by the sea and lakes.

T-Centralen Station is the only station in the entire system at which the subway's three lines--the Red, Blue and Green lines--come together.

And as the station also connects the subway system to Stockholm Central Station--a central hub for Sweden's national railway--it is usually jam-packed with passengers rushing to make their connections.

But the frantic people seem to slacken their pace a bit when they arrive at the Blue Line's platform, located at the far end of the station. The platform's contoured walls are painted blue and white to create the sense of being beneath the sea.

Marie Andersson, 38, a guide for art tours organized by a railway company, says the colors were chosen to help stressed-out people relax.

Station premises and walls throughout most of the 100 stations along Stockholm's subway system have been sculptured or painted.

"The city held a competition in 1950 in response to Swedish artists' desire to bring the arts to the newly built subway system," she said. "The result was the 14 works on display at T-Centralen Station."

In the beginning, most of the works were sculptures and mosaics.

The Blue Line stations, which opened in the 1970s, began to turn tunnels into canvases for painted landscapes.

Solna Centrum Station's ceiling is a striking painting of a sunset at the North Pole. The walls of Hallonbergen Station are covered with paintings resembling children's drawings. The Blue Line terminal at Kungstradgarden Station is decorated with murals, sculptures and reliefs.

The city spends 10 million Swedish kronor (150 million yen) in taxes per year for the arts, and people believe the money is well spent.

Pianist Kerstin Nylander, 50, said that life is boring without arts.

People living in a city where materials are recycled and roads and facilities are barrier free know that such a comfortable life does not come cheaply.